Thursday, April 26, 2007

Italy and European Cohorts have Advice for New French President

The ANNOTICO Report

Italy and it's European partners are far more interested in solving the EU Constitutional Crisis, than concern with Iran's Nuclear ambitions, and even have concern about France's Nuclear program.

They all agreed that relations between themselves, took much greater precedence than relations with the US, particularly in regard to the unpopular and incomprehensible US policies in the Mid East, Iraq, and Iran.

Europeans Offer Advice to the French as Election Nears

International Herald Tribune

By Meg Bortin

Thursday, April 26, 2007

PARIS: With France preparing to elect a president, its European neighbors have some advice for the new leader: Help us solve the constitutional crisis that has clipped the wings of the European Union for the past two years.

Germans, Italians, Spaniards and, by a small margin, even the British, see that as more important for the new French leader than preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons, according to an Internet poll conducted for the International Herald Tribune and the French television station France 24 by Harris Interactive, an online polling organization.

The poll, which surveyed 6,587 people in Europe and the United States, gave respondents several options when asking what the top priority in French foreign policy should be: resolve Europe's constitutional crisis, prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons, take the lead in negotiating a Middle East settlement, reinforce France's ties with China, improve relations between France and the United States or reinforce France's ties with Russia.

The option winning the most support among Americans was improving France-U.S. ties. In answer to another question, 74 percent of U.S. respondents said they wanted the new president chosen by the French on May 6 to work to improve relations with Washington.

But, asked how they view France, only 31 percent of Americans questioned held a positive view, and 20 percent of the French said France should distance itself further from the United States, suggesting that restoring a relationship damaged by the French-American confrontation over Iraq will not be easy for the new leader.

Respondents in all the other survey countries - Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - saw making the European Union function better as most important. This was true for 45 percent of the French, about a third of Germans, Italians and Spaniards, and 19 percent of Britons (although 18 percent of Britons saw preventing Iran from producing nuclear arms as the highest priority).

But if they agree that Europe should top the new president's foreign policy agenda, respondents diverged on how to solve the problems of the 27-member bloc. A majority of Italians and Spaniards think the new French leader should support European enlargement, while a slim majority of Germans and a solid majority of French and Britons believe he or she should oppose it.

Enlargement has become the key European issue since the French and the Dutch rejected a draft EU constitution in referendums two years ago. The EU admitted Romania and Bulgaria on Jan. 1. Countries waiting to get in include Croatia, other Balkan nations and Turkey, a largely Muslim nation of more than 70 million people.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative candidate for the Ilysie Palace, opposes Turkish membership, while Sigolhne Royal of the Socialist Party has said that she is open to the idea but that the French should vote on it.

Majorities in all the countries polled except the United States think that the new president should propose a new constitutional treaty for the EU, and they agree that the new treaty should then be approved by referendums rather than national parliaments.

On other matters:

From 40 to 50 percent of Spaniards, Italians, French and Germans think France should gradually reduce its nuclear program in favor of alternative energy sources, and about one-third of Britons agree.

About 50 percent of the French think France should maintain its position in world trade talks and protect its farmers, while solid majorities in the other European countries polled think Paris should make more concessions on farm subsidies. Americans tended to be more sympathetic than the Europeans to French policy, although 50 percent of those polled in the United States had no opinion.

As for France's image, Italians, Spaniards and especially Germans have a better opinion of the country than the French do, the poll found. A positive opinion is held by 62 percent in France, 63 percent in Spain, 69 percent in Italy and 74 percent in Germany. More Britons are positive (43 percent) than negative (28 percent), but the reverse is true of Americans, with 31 percent viewing France in a positive light and 47 percent in a negative light.

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